All The Puppies Fit to Print

Curled atop NYTimes.com's Most Emailed List today is a story by Jill Abramson, the paper's news managing editor. It's not her hard news analysis of Sonia Sotomayor from the Week in Review but rather the softest, cuddly-wuddliest bit of reporting you can imagine: The first entry in her new blog, The Puppy Diaries, all about bringing home her nine-week-old Golden Retriever, Scout.

In addition to Abramson's blog, there's a Flickr page devoted to baby Scout (at the risk of losing journalistic objectivity, she is extremely cute) and a space for readers to submit their own dog photos.

Yes, the newest addition to The New York Times’ coverage of the world's news and events is a puppy blog. And, you know what? Maybe it's not such a bad idea.

In November 2008, bloggers and casual Web surfers were riveted—some, obsessed—by a San Francisco-based litter of Shiba Inu puppies whose every yelp, yip and yawn were streamed in real time. In the middle of a Presidential election, a war in two countries, and a severe economic downturn, over two weeks four million people watched the little cuties chew on toys, take naps, and wrestle. Sure, it was probably a bit of viral marketing for Ustream.TV, the company behind the technology (Ustream co-founder Brad Hunstable wasted no time promoting the pups—and his service—on NBC's Today Show ), but it was the sort of instant Web sensation that would make any New Media Guru worth his traffic projections do some of that "out-of-the-box" thinking they (amazingly) still get paid the big bucks to do. Four million people cooing over puppies, pick up in Time, People, and even Germany's Der Spiegel: That's a lot of eyeballs—especially if someone is smart enough to place some good ads or find just the right sponsor for all that puppy love.

Sites like Cute Overload have been drawing fans of adorable animals in astounding numbers (3.6 million page views-a-month compared to The Times’ 10.6 million, according to Quantcast). The entire newspaper industry seems to be going to the dogs anyway, so why see if the pups have any bite?